A marvelous hobby

Cosmic Games’ Pete Redpath shares his passion for comic books.

Pete and his dog Daisy next to boxes full of all his comics. // Photo courtesy of Pete Redpath

During the summer a child drives up to Washington, leaving behind his familiar California home. While there, he visits the Fairhaven Pharmacy, which is owned by a family friend. In the corner of the store, the child’s eyes lock onto a comic cover displaying Captain America on the front. From then on, a tradition of these Washington trips was formed alongside a burning passion for collecting comic books — a passion that lives on to this day.

This child was Pete Redpath, who is now the manager at Cosmic Games and has been collecting comic books for 45 years.

This passion for comic books, and to build a collection, was impossible while living in California as Pete felt there were no good places to buy comic books further down the coast.

This meant his trips to Ferndale were the only times he could expand his collection. Pete’s collection also stayed in Washington, so he read them repeatedly while there before having to leave them behind for the summer.

Pete explained dedicated comic bookstores were rare in the late ’70s, so people like him would go to gas stations to buy comics until the ‘80s.

In 1979, Pete’s family settled permanently in Bellingham, bringing him closer to comics. After moving, Pete subscribed for weekly comic book pick-ups at King Arthur’s Book Shoppe and The Comics Place.

Pete’s collecting never really stopped, it formed into a habit for him.

Research done by William D. Mcintosh & Brandon Schmeichel found that collectors tend to settle into a behavioral pattern of collecting. Collectors plan out and hunt their next addition, and when they finally do catch what they were looking for they move on to something else to catch.

This is the exact behavior Pete developed over his 45 years of collecting.

The only time Pete paused his collecting was during his five years in the army, as the comics would not be “safe” during his training in Panama and Egypt. He also said that he would make a down payment to still get his comics during that time as well.

In the ’80s Pete attended an early comic convention at the Seattle Space Needle.

Seeing a group of passionate comic collectors inspired Pete to continue his collection. His only regret with the event is that he missed out on getting signatures from talented members of the industry that have died since. Being connected to comics has also let him meet well-known figures in the comic industry, such as the creator of Wolverine at a restaurant in 2006.

A majority of the comics Pete bought during the ’70s were around 30 cents which is about $2.33 now with inflation. However, a lot of older comic books hold more value than just $2.33.

Mcintosh & Schmeichel’s research presented the idea that collectors fall into four different categories. The four categories are the passionate collectors, the inquisitive collectors, the hobbyist and the expressive collectors.

The one Pete falls into would be “the hobbyist,” those who collect for pure enjoyment. He could be considered a “passionate collector,” due to his emotional connection to the hobby, but passionate collectors also continue collecting no matter what the price is on the item.

Pete admits there are a few comics that he wished he bought as a kid but currently has no plans to get them now due to the price.

Because he has been collecting since childhood, part of Pete’s collection has become highly sought after. An example of this is one of the first Black Panther issues from 1977, which according to price charting, can cost up to $912 for a mint condition copy or even up to $2,000 for rarer editions of it. These high prices are attached to 9.8 graded copies of it. A collectible that’s graded a 9.8 by places like Certified Guaranty Company (CGC) means that it is a “like-new” copy, with very few signs of use.

Pete said the value of comics “feels funny” to him, but he did bump up his homeowner’s insurance just in case something happened. Pete’s passion for comics and nerd culture led him to join Cosmic Games as a manager in 2005.

Cosmic Games, formerly known as Cosmic Comics, rebranded in 2018 when the new owner Adam Scholtz decided to stop carrying comics at the store. Despite that, Pete still gets calls from people offering to sell their collection. In these cases, the comics are bought by Pete for his personal connections and not on behalf of Cosmic Games.

Cosmic Comics also happened to be the same store where Pete would pay $300 to cover comic subscriptions during his time in army training and airborne school.

When Pete returned from training, he owed a lot of money. He said via email that he made the decision to take a sabbatical from comic books as he “didn’t know what life would be like moving forward.”

During that time, he would occasionally stop into Cosmic Comics to say “hi” but never bought anything. His sabbatical lasted for two years after becoming a civilian. It broke when he read Outsiders and Teen Titans #1 — both deal with the continuity of family and friendship. Since the passion was reignited that day, Pete has never looked back.

Despite the amount of money selling parts of his collection could provide, Pete says he has never considered selling his comics.

“It’s more of a passion rather than an investment” he said.

During the 1990s, Pete knew of people that were buying comics solely because they believed they could sell them for a high profit in a few years. These types of collectors were given the name “inquisitive collectors” according to Mcintosh & Schmeichel’s research.

Pete’s passion for comic books has rubbed off onto other people around him, specifically his wife, Martha Redpath. She enjoys joining him on his hunts for comics and “seeing his excitement.” She attempted to get into the comics a few years ago but it was not her “cup of tea.”

When asked about her connection to the hobby, she said, “It’s not my arena, but boy I stepped into it.”

Martha often goes with Pete when he hunts for comics. Before meeting Pete, Martha was never a big fan of comics (aside from seeing the Marvel and DC movies). It was through being with Pete for 15 years that Martha was able to meet celebrities like the late Leonard Nimoy and Stan Lee at Emerald City Comicon. Comicon even inspired Martha to start “soft collecting” postcards made by artist Jey Parks, whom she met at the convention.

At night, Martha sometimes struggles to fall asleep. To help her sleep, she’ll ask Pete to tell her stories from comics.

“He doesn’t even open a book, just tells me the story from memory,” Martha said. “He’s really good at that.”

Despite Martha having no initial interest in Comics, she still finds joy in the hobby through Pete.

“My first year going to a convention I just loved watching him — the excitement that he had going around,” Martha said. “You can find ways to enjoy it, even if it’s through watching others.”

To this day, Pete still heads down to The Comics Place in Bellingham’s central business district every Wednesday to pick up comics.

With the growing popularity of comics and Pete’s undying love for comics, he shows no signs of stopping collecting.

When asked about how to get into the hobby of collecting, he mainly recommended buying trade paperbacks (collections of several comic issues into one) or visiting the local library.

He also suggested the online website Comixology, although he warns that it’s a “different feeling” from owning physical copies. Digital comic collecting is on the rise, yet it is nowhere near the level of collecting physical copies.

Years from now, Martha and Pete plan to hang up a picture of the late Stan Lee reading stories to young children in a grandchild’s playroom. Like Stan Lee’s iconic legacy, the Redpaths aspire to ignite a passion for storytelling within the hearts of their grandchildren.